AS IF 2020 wasn’t grim enough, this year is on course to be the second hottest on record, putting Earth on the brink of a “climate catastrophe”, according to the United Nations.
Scientists say global average temperatures are set to hit 1.2C (2.16F) above pre-industrial levels by the end of the year.
7
That would put 2020 within the top three warmest years on record, with the possibility of coming second only to a sweltering record set four years ago.
The shocking figures feature in a report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) on average global surface temperatures this year.
The research shows our planet is plagued by increasingly extreme weather as climate change continues.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the 2020 report illustrates “how close we are to climate catastrophe”.
7
“Apocalyptic fires and floods, cyclones and hurricanes are increasingly the new normal,” he said in a speech at Columbia University in New York on the state of the planet.
“Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal. Nature always strikes back – and it is already doing so with growing force and fury.”
According to the WMO report, the years from 2015 to 2020 are “likely to be the six warmest on record”.
Temperature averages across the last five years, and across the last decade, “are also the warmest on record”, it added.
7
The WMO assessment is based on five global temperature datasets, all of which currently place 2020 as the second warmest year to date.
Should that data follow expectations, it would put 2020 ahead of current second place 2019 but behind the scorching year of 2016.
However, the difference between the hottest three years is small and the figures could change by the end of the year.
Modern temperature records began in 1850.
7
The Paris Climate Agreement aims to keep global temperatures well below 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels this century, and to limit that rise to 1.5C (2.7F).
The agreement was created in 2015 and signed by 183 nations, who pledged to reduce their carbon emissions to avoid dangerous global warming.
“2020 has, unfortunately, been yet another extraordinary year for our climate,” said WMO boss Petteri Taalas.
“The average global temperature in 2020 is set to be about 1.2C above the pre-industrial level.
7
“There is at least a one in five chance of it temporarily exceeding 1.5 C by 2024.”
Human activities are driving a “descent towards chaos”, UN boss Guterres added.
He said people were waging war on nature and that making peace with the natural world “must be the top, top priority for everyone, everywhere”.
He pointed to a million species at risk of extinction, the loss of forests and wetlands, plastic pollution in the oceans, millions of deaths a year from air and water pollution, and the emergence of more diseases from animals.
Climate change explained
Here are the basic facts…
- Scientists have lots of evidence to show that the Earth’s climate is rapidly changing due to human activity
- Climate change will result in problems like global warming, greater risk of flooding, droughts and regular heatwaves
- Each of the last three decades have been hotter than the previous one and 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have happened during the 21stcentury
- The Earth only needs to increase by a few degrees for it to spell disaster
- The oceans are already warming, polar ice and glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and we’re seeing more extreme weather events
- In 2015, almost all of the world’s nations signed a deal called the Paris Agreement which set out ways in which they could tackle climate change and try to keep temperatures below 2C
A separate report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and research organisations has warned that fossil fuel production needs to fall by 6 per cent every year to 2030 to curb global warming to 1.5C (34.7F).
This is the threshold above which the worst impacts of climate change are expected.
But countries are planning to increase their production of oil, gas and coal.
Citing the UNEP report, Guterres said: “Let’s be clear: human activities are at the root of our descent toward chaos.
7
“But that means human action can help solve it. Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top, top priority for everyone, everywhere.”
He said the recovery from the pandemic was an opportunity to “flick the ‘green switch’,” and transform the world economy so it was sustainable and powered by renewables, creating new jobs and cleaner infrastructure.
“In overcoming the pandemic, we can also avert climate cataclysm and restore our planet,” he urged, adding that it was a moral, as well as a policy test.
After major environmental conferences in 2020 were delayed by the pandemic, Guterres said: “We must use 2021 to address our planetary emergency.”
7
Following recent announcements from major economies that they will cut emissions to net zero within a few decades, he called on all countries, cities, financial institutions and companies to adopt plans to get to net zero by 2050.
He also called for a price on carbon, for fossil fuel finance to be phased out and subsidies ended, and for countries to stop building new coal power plants, as well as action on emissions from shipping and flights.
The UN secretary-general said funding should flow to the green economy.
And he urged countries to deliver on long standing pledges to provide $100billion (£75billion) a year in support for poorer nations to cope with climate change.
Alongside climate action, he called for more ambition and greater commitment to protect nature, with more conservation areas, phasing out harmful subsidies and implementing sustainable agriculture and fisheries.
Prince William jokes he didn’t understand what Prince Charles was ‘banging on’ about when he started campaigning for climate change
LOW LIFE ON MARS
Aliens may have once lived miles beneath the surface of Mars
POWER HOURS
Almost everyone fits into six ‘power hour’ types – including ‘daytime sleepy’
LOST WORLD
Ancient cliff face paintings of lost ‘mega animals’ discovered
STARRY EYED
Biggest meteor shower of the year next week – how to spot Geminids
MOON SHOT
China ‘has LANDED on the Moon’ in risky drilling mission – but broadcast cut off
ET, PHONE HOME!
The mysteries we need to solve to prove the existence of aliens
In other news, a tectonic plate under the Indian Ocean is slowly breaking in two, according to research.
Climate change could render a fifth of the planet as hot as the Sahara Desert by 2070, according to a new study.
And, Nasa scientists thought they’d found evidence of a bizarre parallel universe but now other experts are castings doubts.
Do you worry about climate change? Let us know in the comments…
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
